5-manipulation + spite

Question 1

what is manipulation?

Answer 1

an individual may be tricked or coerced into behaving cooperatively so what appears altruistic is actually manipulation

Question 2

why is all behaviour likely to involve some degree of manipulation?

Answer 2

individuals try to selfishly maximise their own fitness at the expense of others

Question 3

list 3 species that exhibit manipulative behaviour

Answer 3

• european starling
• cuckoo finch
• tawny flanked prinia

Question 4

what is interspecific brood parasitism?

Answer 4

parasites exploit parental care of hosts to trick them to be altruistic

Question 5

what indicates hunger in cuckoo parasites?

Answer 5

begging calls and brightly coloured gapes

Question 6

who and when studied how cuckoos persuade host parents to care for their young

Answer 6

kilner et al 1999

Question 7

what rate will host reed warblers feed a single cuckoo chick at compared to reed warbler chicks?

Answer 7

feed one cuckoo chick at a similar rate to 4 reed warbler chicks

Question 8

in an experiments increasing the sound begging component how did parent reed warblers respond?

Answer 8

respond to a louder noise or bigger gape

Question 9

how many reed warbler chick begging calls do cuckoo chicks mimic?

Answer 9

> 4

Question 10

why are the gapes of cuckoo chicks at a disadvantage in terms of signal? - what makes up for this>

Answer 10

smaller than host brood

- begging calls: beg at higher rate than 4 reed warblers so parents feed more frequently

Question 11

what can and cant cuckoos increase?

Answer 11

can increase call rate but not gape area

Question 12

what do cuckoo chicks exploit?

Answer 12

behavioural rules of the parents as they initiate auditory and visual cues

Question 13

what is the cost of begging at a high rate?

Answer 13

attracts predators

Question 14

what is the brood parasitism example for horsfields hawk-cuckoo? (2)

Answer 14

• when hungry wave wings so yellow patch under its wing acts as a second gape so it doesn’t have to beg as loud to signal hunger
• only display false gape when more hungry

Question 15

what did canestrari et al 2014 discover about great spotted cuckoo as an example of parasitism becoming mutualism?

Answer 15

• benefit hosts by emitting foul secretion that repels predators, increasing chance of host brood fledging
• parasitised groups had higher success rates

Question 16

describe how there is a continuum of symbiotic interactions

Answer 16

coop interactions are unstable and turn into exploitation when one individual takes advantage of social partner

Question 17

what does intra and inter specific conflict have power in generating?

Answer 17

adaptation to manipulate others to be altruistic towards them

Question 18

describe the example discovered by Hojo et al 2015 for mutualism becoming parasitism (7)

Answer 18

• lycaenid butterfly and ants
• provide secretion that ants like meaning more likely to attend the larvae
• fed by ants in nest
• protect larvae from predators in return can feed from nectary organ of butterfly
• butterfly manipulates ants behaviour
• feeding ant can induce ants to spend less time walking so they defend more
• aggression induced in ants aiding in their defense as manipulative drug in secretion decreases dopamine in ants brain

Question 19

in terms of hamilton’s rule when can spiteful behaviour evolve?

Answer 19

rB > C

relatedness must be negative

Question 20

how is r negative?

Answer 20

• relatedness coefficient involves sharing genes identical by descent
• relatedness measured relative to population as a whole

Question 21

when may a spiteful gene spread through a population?

Answer 21

if it harms individuals not carrying the gene therefore benefitting other carriers of the spiteful gene

Question 22

what does spite directed at non relatives benefit?

Answer 22

relatives

Question 23

give 5 facts about polyembryonic parasitoid wasps discovered by Giron et al 2004 and Gardner et al 2007

Answer 23

• M and F egg laid into moth larva
• clonal F and M larvae occupy single host
• egg divides asexually producing thousands of larvae
• some F develop at sterile soldiers, attacking other larvae
• soldier (F) relatedness to F is 1 as clonal and relatedness to M is 0.25

Question 24

give 4 reasons why the behaviour in polyembryonic parasitoid wasps can be considered spiteful

Answer 24

• behaviour costly for sterile soldiers as give up ability to reproduce
• behaviour targets unrelated individuals/distant kin such as M
• close kin benefit from harmful behaviour, eliminating M larvae, increasing prob F larvae can emerge as adults
• F comp for resource provided by moth host reduced

Question 25

in terms of kin what kind of mechanism is harder to develop?

Answer 25

to discover distant kin

Question 26

give 3 reasons as to why spite is rare in nature

Answer 26

• spiteful act to non kin incurs cost to actor
• may benefit relative but also other unrelated individuals : so actor may derive net cost from spite
• hard to recognise small number of close kin but harder to recognise individuals with negative relatedness : risk that spiteful behaviour directed to distant kin as well as those of negative r

Question 27

what provides the framework to understand the evolution of social behaviours?

Answer 27

hamilton’s concept of IFT and social interaction table

Question 28

what is the default of NS?

Answer 28

selfish behaviour

Question 29

why is spite rare?

Answer 29

unusual conditions required

Question 30

altruism arising by what is likely to be selected for?

Answer 30

manipulation

Question 31

describe Gardner and West 2006 findings for chemical warfare in bacteria (4) + 3 examples (3)

Answer 31

• some bacteria explode into antibacterial toxins to kill competitors
• closest relatives spared due to genetic linkage between toxin gene and gene giving immunity to toxin
• only negatively related cells killed
• health affected as if bacteria at war with each other they are less able to sustain infection
• e.g. p.luminsecens
• e.g. parasitoid wasp: wolbachia causes M to spitefully sterilise F
• e.g. suicidal soldiers in parasitoid wasps

Question 32

what is greenbeard spite and an example of where it occurs (3)

Answer 32

• if r to victims of spite - then spite favoured by kin selection
• gene encoding distinctive trait/green beard genetically associated with spite gene then this marker can be used to guide relations
• in red fire ants where workers with spiteful gene kill prospective queens who don’t share gene: ensures surviving queens carry the gene